Katie, Ezra, and I recently went on an adventure to the mystical land of Omaha, Nebraska. “What’s in Nebraska?” you might ask… Other than lush green grass, rolling fields of corn, and cows (lots of cows) there is an incredible summer theatre experience awaiting your much deserved attention.

No mountains? We’re not in Albuquerque anymore…

Nebraska Shakespeare Festival is very likely the largest theatre event in the midwest. Most nights the outdoor Shakespeare in the park experience sees upwards of 1000 people happily noshing on homemade picnic foods and downing icy beverages while they lounge on blankets spread across a football-sized, tree-lined field. The atmosphere of the place is only heightened by the burning glow of fireflies, and the stunned silence of children who only moments ago gayley romped about before the show.

Nebraska Shakes runs two plays by the Bard in rep (meaning you can see the same cast acting on a versatile set in two very different shows), and one of DCRT’s very own was walking the boards as the titular role in Othello. That’s right, folks, Frank Green was to be driven mad by his trusted friend, Iago, before our very eyes! Obviously we couldn’t miss it.

Frank Taylor Green as Othello and Brittany Proia as Desdemona.

This production of Othello, directed by DCRT mentor, John Hardy, was astounding. Beginning as the sun’s light made room for the moon, the play’s action beautifully transformed from the beaming love of newlywed bliss to the dark propulsions of suspicion and jealousy. Quick paced, lean and mean, Hardy’s adaptation of the moor’s downfall works its characters (and audience) into an emotional frenzy that begins from the first moments of the play and doesn’t let up until the gruesome ending.

Special perks come with having friends in the cast, including a tour of the set before showtime!

I was amazed at how quickly I fell into the story, riding the waves of omniscient turmoil as the hero of my story was beguiled by a spidery web of lies. What’s more, I was surprised to see a production in which Iago wasn’t overtly savage and evil in his scheming–if anything, it seemed as though the character hadn’t planned this endeavor and struggled with what he was doing the whole way through. What an amazing opportunity to experience the power of discovery as an audience member.

A far-away glance at the stage and park. Check out that view!

It was also the first time I’ve ever seen the character of Othello as he surely was intended to be: an overwhelming presence of strength, intelligence, authority, and blinding love. In the magic of theatre, Othello appeared to be 10 feet tall on that stage as his presence held dominion over the audience’s thoughts and emotions. He was a tidal wave that none of us wanted to or could escape from.

That’s one packed park!

The only moment the production lagged for me was during a meaty section of exposition that described a storm that may or may not have ravaged the ships of an enemy fleet while simultaneously drowning Othello and his own armada. I can’t say it was for lack of effort on the part of the actors, but maybe that was the problem–a lot of energy spent telling and not a lot of doing is usually the death of audience attention. And let’s be honest, Shakespeare’s exposition is freaking hard!

I’m sad to say, Katie, Ezra, and I couldn’t stay to see As You Like It, the second show performing on the green, but by all accounts Vincent Carlson-Brown (director of DCRT’s The 39 Steps) directed a beautiful adaptation of the mistaken identity comedy in the woods.

Things we all learned from the trip: mountains may in fact be giant sleeping dragons, food in the midwest isn’t very flavorful unless you get BBQ, don’t get less than 3 hours of sleep before you drive in either direction, some small towns have strict no public restroom policies, Nebraskans love to set off fireworks two weeks before the Fourth of July, the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival is the bomb, and driving 980 miles is nothing when you’re going to see some incredible theatre.

Omaha sunset giving the Burqueño sunset a run for its money…Until next time, Nebraska!

Five years. Eight company members. Twenty-one productions. A million thanks.

WOW.

It seems like only yesterday we were nervously applying our makeup in a long silver-bullet trailer parked outside The Filling Station, anticipating Opening Night for our Inaugural show, Trust by Steven Dietz. We hadn’t even started the season, and it felt as though we’d already encountered and overcome countless obstacles just to get to that point…

We were starting a professional theatre company! We wanted to serve the audiences of New Mexico! We wanted to provide transformative, thought-provoking, engaging theatre!

And five seasons later…HERE WE ARE. It’s been a challenging, wondrous, and rewarding journey, and we wouldn’t take back one second of it. The fifth season, in particular, was a testament to how far we’ve come as a company, and how we could not have made it this far without YOU—our audiences.

Here’s what you can look forward to reading about in this blog:

The Drowning GirlsTeaching Documentary Filmmaking in RoswellAll I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front TeethDonation DrivesAnimal FarmAnimal Farm…On Tour!The 39 StepsThe 6th Season Announcement PartyTheater on the FarmFrank at Nebraska ShakespeareImagine Action ConservatoryBest of the City voting

So without further ado, here are the 5th season highlights!

The Drowning GirlsWritten by Beth Graham, Daniela Vlasalic, and Charlie Tomlinson, directed by John HardyWater. Wedding gowns. More water. Tubs. More water!

When considering plays for our fifth season, we asked ourselves what challenges we would like to tackle as company members. Resident Stage Manager Alicia Webb made a request for shows that had more technical spectacle—and boy did she get what she asked for. Alicia handled the challenges of doing a show with LOTS of water like a champ—coming to the theatre early so that the water could warm to a higher temp for the actors, siphoning the water out of a bathtub with just a hose and gravity on her side, and wiping up a very wet stage at the end of every night.

As actors, the challenge of using water was exhilarating.It provided many obstacles – Slippery floors. Wet stockings. Water up the nose! – that made performing on that stage every night fun, and added a dimensionality to the performance that several of us had yet to experience.

Production Manager and Technical Director Ezra Colón was faced with building a stage that could be water tight—indeed, many of us feared that we’d find a moldy underbelly upon striking the set closing night—but to our joy (and relief), not a drop made it’s way past the surface. Huzzah!

Teaching Documentary Filmmaking in Roswell, NM

In October of 2014, Frank Taylor Green, Josh Heard, and Lauren Myers went down to the Sidney Gutierrez Middle School to teach documentary filmmaking to a class of 8th graders. The students were preparing projects to submit to C-SPAN’s StudentCam, an annual national video documentary competition that encourages students to think critically about issues that affect our communities and our nation. Much to our delight, one of the groups from Sidney Gutierrez Middle School received an Honorable Mention in the competition!

Taylor Fitts, Vittoria Price & Hannah Bejarano created a film on immigration and were not only visited by a C-SPAN bus, but a personal visit from Roswell Mayor Dennis Kintigh, a letter of congratulations from NM State Senator Henrich, and a special video from Congressman Pearce.

We were proud of these students for their hard work and diligence and for presenting a project that is specifically tied to New Mexico and our culture.

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front TeethWritten by Catherine Bush, directed by Frank Taylor GreenAdults. Playing children. And missing teeth?

If Christmas is all about celebrating kindness, selflessness, and pure joy, what better way to explore these virtues than playing 7-year-old kids?! After a show with lots of water, we decided to DIVE (pun intended!) into something new—and exploring the inner-workings of a child’s mind during the holiday season seemed like the perfect “deep end” in which to conduct our artistic experiments.

This show was a testament to joy — why it is so intertwined with the holidays and how it can give us hope and strength — particularly through generous acts. It was our first “musical” since The Last Five Years in our first season. It was also our first choreographed dance number—a five minute long Christmas Extravaganza—that reminded us how awesome it felt to be alive during the holidays.

We were incredibly grateful to our dentist friends who helped us with Lucy’s “missing two front teeth” gag. There’s nothing more satisfying than having a kid raise her hand after the show and ask, “How did you DO that?!”

Theatre magic, friends. Theatre magic.

Donation Drives

Director of Development Josh Heard set out this season to collaborate with several non-profit organizations in order to support the wonderful work they are doing for this community….and the results were astounding!!

During the run of All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth we partnered with Enlace Comunitario and S.A.F.E. House New Mexico for a diaper, toy, and clothing drive. We collected over 1,000 diapers and an SUV full of toys and clothing!!

For The 39 Steps, we filled an entire barrel (and then some) of non-perishable food for Road Runner Food Bank.

We are so grateful for all of our patrons who donated many items throughout the season and for supporting these incredible organizations. Stay tuned next season for more donation partnerships!

Animal FarmWritten by George Orwell, adapted by Nelson Bond, directed by Katie Becker ColónAnimals rebelling. But…what if the pigs are wrong?

Well, we tackled water on stage and 7-year-old children—so why not step it up a notch and play barnyard animals?! Pigs, dogs, horses, donkeys, pigeons, and goats—every species offered its own set of opportunities for physical exploration—but add on top of that a political farm-wide revolution—and you’ve got yourself one intense play.

Adapting and staging one of the most well known political satires from the twentieth century created a wonderful conversation spark for our post-show discussions. Which, if you’ve been to any DCRT show in the last two seasons, you’ll know the “DCRT Dialogue” is a special trademark of the work we do and why we do it. We love giving our audiences the opportunity to express and articulate their reactions to our productions and the stories we tell, both inside and outside the theatre. And the discussions that sprang from a high-profile story like Animal Farm included a defense of Putin, conversations about censorship and freedom of speech, and questions about modern governance.

Animal Farm…ON TOUR!

Before staging this show at The Cell, we had the pleasure to tour Animal Farm to schools and organizations across the state. From Roswell to Albuquerque to Pecos, we saw over 1,100 students during the month of February. Our performance at The KiMo Theater was made possible through the Albert I. Pierce Foundation, and we bussed in students from New Futures, North Valley Academy, and PAPA, among others.

The responses from students were thoughtful and articulate. Their reactions, questions, and participation in our talkbacks and workshops only fueled our inner fire to support curriculum with professional theatre. We are tickled with anticipation for next year’s touring show.

If you’re interested in booking your school or student’s school, please contact Director of Education Katie Becker Colón at katie@dukecityrep.com.

The 39 StepsWritten by John Buchan, adapted by Patrick Barlow, directed by Vincent Carlson-BrownAn homage to Hitchcock, but a gift to the stage.

Producing The 39 Steps was a BIG experiment in many ways. It was our first time working with Nebraska Shakespeare’s Artistic Director Vincent Carlson-Brown, our first show with only one company member (Ezra Colón), and by far the most prop-heavy production we’d witnessed in five seasons.

And come opening night, it was also one of the funniest shows we’d ever seen. Vincent’s precise, crisp, and witty direction and the actors’ dynamic performances brought the script to life, fulfilling any Hitchcock lover’s fantasy, but most importantly—the show gave our audiences the opportunity to participate in a true theatrical experience, where the power of the story lies in the power of the stage, and we were giddy from all of your responses after each show.

With the last two weekends sold out, it was a wonderful way to end the season and gave us the energy and momentum to choose our sixth season, which then leads us to…

The 6th Season Announcement Party

We’re getting ready to announce our most exciting season yet and we want YOU to be the first to hear about it! It’s guaranteed to be one memorable night of fun. On top of our announcement, there’ll be snacks, beverages, games, awards, and your first chance to purchase 2015/2016 season subscriptions!

The party takes place on Thursday, July 9th, from 6pm to 8pm at The Cell Theatre (700 1st St. NW 87102). The admission is FREE, and our announcement will take place promptly at 7pm!

You have one more chance to see Theater on the Farm, a collaboration withFarm & Table and Tricklock Company and a unique synthesis of food, art, and community that’s been taking place for three consecutive Wednesdays in June. The evening begins with a mingle featuring Farm & Table appetizers and drinks with the production’s cast and crew before the show. Following the mingle, Tricklock and DCRT present two original one-act plays as the sun sets across the farm.

DCRT’s show, “Groundwork,” is directed by Amelia Ampuero and stars company member Ezra Colón. Written by Mike Ostroski and Derek Davidson, “Groundwork” begins with a simple idea: Grow a Garden. The idea hits Paul like a meteor hitting the planet and he’s off. He reads the books, sows the seeds and before his first tomatoes ripen, departs on a crusade to save the planet one precious seedling at a time. Saving himself, however, will prove a much harder battle.

Tricklock’s “Rain Follows the Plow” is directed by Erin Phillips and stars Diana Delgado and Drew Morrison. Set in the Dust Bowl of the 1920’s, this show explores the life of a young couple from the city who embark to the wide open land in the middle of the country to begin a life together. As massive clouds of dust swell up from the land and cover the floors, coat their lungs, and kill their crops, the two to wonder if their dreams may be impossible. “Rain Follows The Plow” is a story of what it takes to survive against the elements in the face of dwindling hope and altered expectations. It is a story of love, loss, and need, echoing with the question, “how much is enough?”

There’s still one performance left on June 24th, so we encourage you not to miss this beautiful event!

Duke City Rep’s very own Frank Taylor Green has the amazing opportunity to work at Nebraska Shakespeare this summer, which includes acting in As You Like It as well as playing the title character in Othello. He’ll be working along side DCRT Super Friends John Hardy (The Drowning Girls, These Shining Lives) and Vincent Carlson-Brown (The 39 Steps). We’re cheering them on from New Mexico, and wish them nothing but broken legs!

Imagine Action Conservatory

Space is limited for our inaugural Imagine Action Conservatory, a two-week summer program that teaches Life Skills Through Stage Skills to students grades 3rd-12th. The program is a collaboration between Duke City Rep, Sol Acting Academy, and Menaul School.

Register before July 1st for our $500 tuition rate!

Students will have an opportunity to learn from professional actors and theatre practitioners with 40+ years of experience in theatre and film. The program focuses on cultivating confidence, bravery, teamwork, and creativity–all through the powerful medium of theatre. Regardless of where life takes them, students of all backgrounds will benefit from Imagine Action Conservatory’s two weeks of adventure!

The camp runs July 13th-24th, 2015 at the Menaul School (301 Menaul Boulevard Northeast, Albuquerque, NM 87107). Lunch is provided!!

As always, Duke City Repertory Theatre would not be here today without the generous support of our season sponsors, our donors, and our patrons. Thank you for supporting live theatre in Albuquerque, and we’ll see you at the theatre!

As Duke City Repertory Theatre prepares to open John Buchan’s The 39 Steps by Patrick Barlow, there’s much anticipation behind the scenes. The company is eager to see what guest director Vincent Carlson-Brown has brought to the artistic table, as this is not only his first time working with DCRT, but his directorial debut in the southwest. Director of Media & Marketing Lauren Myers interviewed Carlson-Brown, discussing everything from film noir to shakespeare to southwestern cultural infusion.

Lauren Myers: I did a lot of research about you online, and almost everything that popped up was related to Nebraska Shakespeare. You currently serve as their Artistic Director—how did you get involved with them, and what’s made you decide to stick around?

Vincent Carlson-Brown: I got my Bachelor’s degree in acting and directing from University of Nebraksa in Omaha, which happens to be attached to Nebraska Shakespeare (NS) in the sense that professors, faculty, and students from the school were all its founders. This summer is my sixteenth year as a company member, and in those sixteen years I’ve done everything from carpentry, sound design, acting, directing, producing, etc. NS produces two Shakespeare plays every summer as well as a fall education tour, and then some artistic programming throughout the year.

LM: What do you like most about working with NS?

VCB: One. It’s Shakespeare! I can find no other playwright that has the depth of material and infinite interpretability in a single body of work. It’s so expansive and there’s so much to discover—you can work a lifetime with his work and never be exhausted—which is part of my plan!

Two. Shakespeare’s popular but he’s also a challenge for a lot of people, and I’m interested in unlocking the keys as to why and how we’re still performing Shakespeare and why it’s so meaningful, especially to myself, our community, and society.

LM: How did you come to find out about Duke City Repertory Theatre?

VCB: John Hardy was my first experience with anyone connected to DCRT. I saw his production of The Borrower’s in Omaha at the Rose Theatre and was really impressed (it also featured DCRT Company Member Katie Becker Colón). Hardy is a professional director who travels all over the U.S. with his work, and I wanted to talk to him and interview him for NS. When I found out he was also an actor, I hired him to play Marcus in Titus Andronicus and Malvolio in Twelfth Night.

I really enjoyed working with Hardy because in all his years of experience and professionalism, he’s still famously a learner and he’s always taking everything in, always learning and using everyone’s knowledge around him to get better himself.

Eventually Hardy put my name in front of DCRT, so I talked to Amelia and we connected on process and style and professionalism. After hiring me, I kind of walked in as a mercenary director—which is fun!

As another connection, I hired Frank Green to play Othello this summer at NS, which Hardy will be directing!

LM: What attracted you to The 39 Steps?

VCB: I had seen the film and had heard of the play and read it but never seen it. I’d also read the novel on which the movie was based—so then I re-watched movie and re-read the script. For me, The 39 Steps is a great telling and re-telling of the original story. It’s a lot like Shakespeare because everything in our modern day culture is infused with the flavor of his work in a lot of different ways, and there are some plays and material that are straight out of Shakespeare. So for me this play was valuable because I’d been a fan of Hitchcock and his films, and obviously this is a telling, a parody, and a re-telling of Hitchcock’s work. I like stories that use previously-sourced material and look at them in a different way. My wife and I ran a devised theatre company a few years ago, and we acted, directed, and wrote our material using scripts and turning them on their sides in order to look at them in a new way.

I also like the play because it’s NOT Shakespeare! I almost work exclusively with Shakespeare, and while I’ve directed a handful of non-Shakes plays, I’m better served as an artist and director by expanding the material in the repertoire in which I work. So I think my work on The 39 Steps will make me a better Shakespeare director and vice versa. They’re vastly different—this is an American film noir parody, the material is different, and I’m drawn to it. This is my first directing job outside of Nebraska, and I was excited to work with artists I’d never worked with before and I’m expanding my circle.

LM: Now that you’ve been able to spend some time in the Southwest, what do you think of Albuquerque?

VCB: The weather in Albuquerque is more consistently nice down here. I’ll get calls from my wife back in Omaha where she says, “It’s snowing today!” or “Our gutters broke because there’s a downpour,” and here I just say, “Well, I’m gonna go sit on my porch and read.”

There’s also a strong film culture—we don’t have that in Omaha, which is a theatre town exclusively. So what’s great about Albuquerque is you have a body of artists that are constantly seeking work and actually working fairly consistently in different mediums, and that’s exciting to see.

Omaha and Albuquerque both have those mid-west/southwest vibes—the coasts are interesting. But if I were to choose to work somewhere, Albuquerque would be on that list because the people are nice and they are more aware of themselves and more aware of their general surroundings—you feel like you’re part of the community.

I’ve also done some exploring and I’m excited about the infusion of culture in Albuquerque. I rode my bike down to Old Town and it was fun to see American Indian and Hispanic culture infused into a little community market. I also plan to see the bio park and zoo and to go up to the sandia mountains. The drive from Albuquerque to Santa Fe is also really great. I saw a couple of art films in Santa Fe, so this whole area seems to have a great film, art, and culture scene.

LM: I have to ask: What are your favorite restaurants so far?

VCB: So far I’ve eaten at Farina, The Grove, The Waffleria, Frontier, and Sadie’s—all were great!

LM: What has the rehearsal process been like for The 39 Steps?

VCB: It was initially interesting for me because I walked into rehearsals blind in that I didn’t know anybody other than Amelia and the designers after a couple of phone conversations, and I didn’t know my actors. This isn’t unusual in the professional world, but for me I’d never worked with actors that I did not know, so I had to trust the Artistic Director to provide me a team to do the job. It was actually great not doing a LOT of the work, because I usually do all that for my own company. And it was good to just have a specific job to do, to kind of let go and trust that this company had the people and the team to do what needed to be done. It was great.

We had online production meetings with the designers, and I was pleased with all of them because they listened to what I had to offer but also offered their own ideas, so even before I got here I felt the design team was on top of their game and offering their own artistic impulses.

As far as Alicia Webb goes, I think the best thing about stage managers is that you don’t realize all the work they do until it’s all been done. They don’t get all the recognition, but without them we can’t even rehearse, or get into the room. Alicia’s been great in that you don’t really see the work she’s doing, and I mean that as a compliment!

The actors are fast, professional, funny, and while I’m not surprised by it, I’m still pleased with the cast. I had a chance to tour the performance space and I’m excited to interact with a smaller space—I usually direct in an amphitheater that’s the size of a football field and seats 3,000 to 5,000 people—So I’m looking forward to honing the intimacy of a smaller theatre. I think the play works really well for the performance space, because the smaller, more honest, and intimate things you get in an “Alfred-Hitchcock-film-noir-parody” play really well.

LM: What are some of the challenges that you’ve encountered since coming out here?

VCB: I’m married, and my wife is an actress in Omaha. We usually work together—she’s the Director of Education at NS, and when we travel we usually get hired together. This is really the first job that I’ve been away from home and from her, so that’s been a challenge.

Trying to stay connected to professional life back home is interesting. The day I drive back from Albuquerque is the week before actors arrive for NS’s summer season where we’re producing two full Shakespeare productions, so while I’m here I’m also trying to stay connected to my design team and actors.

And that’s the unique part of working as an artist—you’re trying to find how to fulfill yourself as an artist and work as a professional—and still keep the next job after the current job. We have to constantly “interview” for our new jobs and keep working at what our “work” is—and if we’re too content then it’s like…“well what do I do now?” You have to be constantly working, so I have stay up on my responsibilities.

LM: What are you looking forward to the most with The 39 Steps?

I’m excited for it’s opening. I’m disappointed that I won’t get to see the full run, but I have to get back to Omaha right after the show opens in order to produce our summer season. And that’s new for me, that I just see opening night and say, “see ya!”—but by that time I truly believe it’s the actors show anyway.

Duke City Repertory Theatre’s production of The 39 Steps runs May 7-24, 2015 at The Cell Theatre in Downtown Albuquerque. For more information and tickets, please visit http://www.dukecityrep.com.

A wise man once said that the definition of a moment is that which cannot be held in the palm of your hand.

For us Duke City Reppers, 2014 was bursting with moments that encouraged, lifted, and energized us toward another year serving the great community of Albuquerque. And while these moments are not physically tangible, we are gleefully compelled to articulate our discoveries and journeys throughout the year.

As a company, here were some highlights:

Winning “Best Theatre” in the City by Albuquerque the Magazine for the 4th year in a row!

Making public appearances for our productions, including hauntings for The Drowning Girls,

Teaching documentary filmmaking to 8th graders in Roswell, New Mexico!

But there’s so much more that each of us want to say, so without further ado, here’s a collection of some of our favorite moments from 2014 as actors and company members of Duke City Repertory Theatre!

Josh Heard Resident Acting Company Member, Director of Development

DCRT is like a family, but without all the drama (see what I did there?)

I started working with the company in January of 2014 for the winter classic production, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That first time, walking into the rehearsal hall (a very non-theatre conference room in the Albuquerque Uptown Hotel) was exciting and terrifying. I’d only met these people briefly during a 10 minute audition the previous August. They seemed nice enough, but you never know how things are going to fit together when you get into the thick of it. This was also to be my introduction to a man named John Hardy—a director so revered by the company that they were willing to work around his schedule—which meant we would rehearse the play in January, go dark for February, and open in March (very unusual, to say the least).

What I learned that first rehearsal was that this company worked completely differently than any other I had encountered. They had all the typical marks of a theatre company: they were funny, outgoing, had inside jokes, and millions of stories to tell, but there was something distinctly different about their demeanor… a presence, an energy of professionalism and artistic integrity that was palpable from the moment they started talking about the art. And it was invigorating!

There was no “easing in” to the rehearsal process that night; from the very beginning we were going to explore the depths of the play, and (as I learned that first night) we were never, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, to “arrive at the way of doing” or performing the play. EVER. NEVER EVER EVER.

“What does that even mean?” I wondered to myself, feeling excited and simultaneously out of my depth.

I quickly came to understand why John Hardy. “Hardy”–as he’s lovingly called by the ranks of DCRT–wasn’t just a director. His goal wasn’t to stage a play, creating pretty little pictures with actors placed logically around the stage to illustrate his idea of the story. No way. Not him.

Hardy was going to be our leader in the discovery of the world of the play. And I’m not just talking about the setting or the time period or the manner in which to move or speak. No, it was so much more. It was never about putting on a type of character or a feeling for a moment. It was the opposite of that. We were discovering possibilities in every iota of every aspect, from the electricity in the air we breathed to the way sound traveled through space to the dire importance of each tiny moment, and all of this experienced only from the internal life of the character. No actors allowed on stage.

To be honest, those weeks of rehearsal and production were agonizing. Intellectually I grasped what was being asked of me, but how to do it eluded me. Just how in the world was I supposed to “allow the character to deal with the circumstances,” “take out all the time,” and not allow myself to “show the audience anything.” If you boil it down, my task was to stop acting, to release the need to control the outcome and instead live in the moment, driven solely by character thought and feeling.

“Well, I guess I’ll just throw out everything I’ve ever done or learned and start from scratch!” I exclaimed in a moment of inner turmoil. And that was exactly what needed to happen.

Commiserating with my fellow actors, I learned that everyone in the company struggles with that same task during every rehearsal and each performance: to discard any idea of how it’s “supposed” to happen or feel or look or sound and discover it all over again in the moment every time.

At first it felt like drowning, but Hardy was there to lead and encourage us.

His resolve was unflinching, requiring the absolute best from each of us, and though the bar for achievement was set to an impossible height, we reached for it… and that’s when the magic happened. I realized that, in reality, there was never an exact height of success to be reached. That the goal should always be just out of grasp, because the constant endeavor to go further with the work, to never “arrive at a way of doing,” is what creates the most transformative art. That epiphany has been the most freeing and inspiring discovery of my life…

And that’s the presence, the energy that I felt radiating from the company during the first rehearsal. Every artist in residence is driven to discover their art anew every time they attempt it, and to support their fellow artists in the process. DCRT doesn’t aspire to perform plays. DCRT has resolved to tirelessly endeavor to create a level of art that exceeds even their own ideas of what is possible, and I am incredibly humbled to be a part of that journey.

Ezra ColónResident Acting Company Member, Production Manager

I feel I can safely speak for all of us when I say that DCRT’s production of A Midsummer Nights Dream directed by Dr. John Hardy was a learning experience that changed all of us for the rest of our lives. We had a couple “first’s” for DCRT with this play as well. It was our first time working with the amazing Josh Heard, who is now a company member, and our first time touring to different locations which required a very different set than the one at The Cell.

Here were a couple of things that I discovered along the way. From an acting stand point, comedy is difficult. Specifically, sparking an honest full-bodied laugh from an audience. Thankfully, Shakespeare has written clues in his poetry that guide the actor to the character’s ambition rather than focusing on “bits” or “tricks” to try and make an audience laugh. We discovered, with the help of our director, if we committed to the textual clues provided and honestly believed the circumstances our characters find themselves in, there are some really hilarious moments in the play! The director also stressed how important timing is to comedy. All of us began to think about timing and cleanliness of moments in a new way.

The set for this play, designed by Charles Murdock Lucas, was an incredible challenge because we had never done anything like it before. It consisted of several ladders, sliding doors, and 95% of it was painted “impressionistically”–and none of it would have happened without all of us. Putting this production together (i.e. the set, costumes, props, and lights) is proof that theatre at it’s best is a collaborative art form. Without the help and ideas of everyone involved, it would have never looked as beautiful as audiences experienced it.

Anna NicholsResident Lighting Designer

2014 brought a lot of opportunity for me to play with color and angles. As a lighting designer, starting 2014 with A Midsummer Night’s Dream definitely set the tone for the rest of the year for me. Midsummer was a show in which the set allowed for the light to tell a lot of the story, and in which the fanciful is in full swing, so nothing had to be absolutely realistic, and that opened the door for a lot more creativity. Being in a forest and fairyland, Midsummer involved a lot of greens, blues and shadowy angles.

The angles carried over into These Shining Lives and this time helped delineate the different spaces that needed to be isolated. The use of silver in the set inspired the use of lavenders and icy blues. The panels on the set presented a unique challenge in terms of lighting. The lights behind them had to be arranged, cut, rewired, attached and then programmed to give the greatest effect (the achievement of the final progression was absolutely the most enjoyable part of those panels.)

The themes of color and angle continued into The Drowning Girlswith many shades of blue and some very dramatic accent colors. The suspense, movement, and music all lent themselves to some very fun choices in terms of lighting, and director John Hardy was very open to any idea I felt like running with (even if he didn’t think it was going to work. It totally did.) The use of water and metal in this set also added a new aspect for creativity, which was the reflection of, literally, all the surfaces on stage.

The last show of 2014,All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth, was a very playful show in all aspects, lighting included. The colors in the set were a great selection of blues, greens and purples, so I chose colors to accent those seen on the stage. The extravaganza light curtain was one more opportunity of learning and achievement (really, when I figured out how to make them flash like an OPEN sign was a moment of glorious triumph.)

2014 was definitely a fun year in terms of lighting and simply being a member of such an amazing company.

Prior to our work with DCRT, several of us in the Resident Acting Company toured theatre around the country, taking shows to schools and communities with limited access to professional theatre. There is obviously a need for this in New Mexico and last year, we took our first step toward serving more of our community with our inaugural tour. We toured Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and it was a success on multiple fronts. Audiences loved it. We created the infrastructure to build a larger tour year after year. And I think we collectively discovered that touring is a great challenge for us – figuring out how to navigate a new physical spaceevery day requires a lot of individual and group brainstorming – and incredibly rewarding.

I think the highlight was performing for the adults with special needs at VSA North 4th Art Center. It felt like we were channeling an original performance at The Globe Theatre – the audience freely answered rhetorical questions, laughed, gasped, warned us of oncoming danger. The joy of that audience was contagious and we were all (performers and audience alike) beaming afterward.

EDUCATION
Our first small leap into Education was a summer camp developed for the children of a local country club. Every morning, the kids play sports. In the afternoon, they did cultural activities – field trips to museums, art projects, and theatre classes with us. For eight weeks, we spent two afternoons with them per week and worked on Acting and Improv skills. Our Education programming is built around the philosophy of Life Skills through Stage Skills. As a company, we want to give students the incredible tools and skills that we have learned through the art and craft of theatre – skills that transcend rehearsal and performance.

There were only a handful of kids that we saw all eight weeks – most of them ducked in and out for family vacations and other summer camps. In the consistent kids, we saw transformations, big and small. A 4 year old with underdeveloped language skills used to learn his words and play well with others. An 11 year old who was easily pegged “the weird girl” found more confidence in her ideas and we gave her lots of positive affirmation for her smart, creative impulses. A shy 8 year old blossomed into one of the best improv actors in the group.

Although our time at the Club was brief, we honed our teaching and classroom management skills and received a big, flashing neon sign – YES, KEEP DOING THIS.

THESE SHINING LIVES
Our performance of These Shining Lives at The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History was one of this year’s highlights for me. We toured the set into the museum and performed directly in front of the exhibits. To get to the stage, we entered from the exhibits. Emerging from the dark, hearing the click of our heels echo through the museum, and stepping into the light on stage – it felt like we were materializing the ghosts from the dark corners of the museum into bright life. We were honoring the lives of the brave men and women in that tragic story. It was a theatre magic that I had never seen or felt before.

THE DROWNING GIRLS
As a company, we’ve talked a lot this year about the power of a resident acting company. Like a band that plays together for years and grows their body of work, we learn and grow as an ensemble and we’ve started to build a foundation of consistently strong and exciting work. I felt this most potently during Drowning Girls. There was an intimacy about The Drowning Girls that was possible because Amelia, Lauren, and I have been working together for years. Together, we investigated our bodies, our relationships, our identity as women, our culture, our assumptions – all while telling this horrific story, wearing white underwear, and dousing one another in water. It was physically uncomfortable, emotionally challenging, and I am a richer artist and human because of it.

Amelia AmpueroResident Acting Company Member, Artistic Director

I am the Artistic Director of the best theatre company in the world. (I am aware of the extreme biased nature of that statement but I beg you, dear reader, to allow me to wax sentimental for a moment. It is the end of another year, after all.)

As I was saying, I am the Artistic Director of the best theatre company in the world. I have the unbelievable fortune to spend my days with people who want to make the world a better place and who believe that theatre has the power to transform and inspire way beyond the confines of a single performance. These people, these stupidly amazing artists of DCRT, want to endow humanity with more beauty, more truth, more bravery. There isn’t one of them who isn’t trying to be better today than they were yesterday. I am humbled every day by their presence in my life.

Whenever I get in a room with these people I can’t help but think that awesome things are possible, that we can make the world a better place. It is my opinion that we attack every single thing we do at DCRT with that intensity and that our audiences can feel that same intensity deep in their bones. But for the purpose of this blog post, I am going to “unpack” the experience of doing These Shining Lives with this incredible group of people who make up my artistic home.

These Shining Lives has been on my mind quite a bit in the last few days, not only because of a nudge from Lauren Myers, who handles our blog and occasionally asks me to write about stuff, but also because the very last Radium Girl, Mae Keane, passed away in 2014 and NPR re-released an article about her life. Since then, I have been bombarded with messages, emails, Facebook posts and texts about it. I am stunned by the number of people who shared this article with me, who saw that Mae Keane had worked in a watch factory in the 1920s painting numbers on glow-in-the-dark watches with a radium compound, and who thought of These Shining Lives and our cast of Radium Girls: Me, Katie Becker Colón, Wendy Scott, and Evening Star Barron.

It was as if these people had to let us know that the last one of the Radium Girls, the last of the shining women, had finally found her place in the sky amongst the stars and the minutes and miracles. I love so much that so many people sent me that NPR article. I love that myself and the three incredible women I shared the stage with are inextricably linked to the Radium Girls. I love that I will never pass by another glow-in-the-dark watch and not wonder about the girl who made it. I love that for the rest of my life, I will almost immediately burst into tears when I hear Philip Glass’ “In the Upper Room – Dance II”. And while I think it’s understandable that I would feel these things as I lived intimately in Catherine Donohue’s world, I am overcome that our production would inspire similar loyalty to these characters and their story in our audiences.

And I say that because I was not only sent a link to the article but also thoughts and reflections on specific moments of the play that are still resonating with patrons—memories from a show that closed over half a year ago. People experienced something in the watching of These Shining Lives just as we, the actors and crew, did in the doing of it and I am grateful to have been a part of something that had such a profound effect on audiences.

That effect, that kind of response, can be the catalyst for change. I have been talking to many of the DCRT company members about how what we do has the power to change the world. It may not be in huge, quantifiable ways but we have the power to inspire a small group of people, who in turn may go out and inspire another small group of people and so on and so forth. It’s a ripple, a gentle but persistent presence of beauty and truth and bravery.

2014 has been quite a year. I am grateful to the audiences that we served this year, the audiences that laughed and cried and grew with us. 2015 will shoot right out of the gates with our production of Animal Farm and I think the entire company is chomping at the bit (sorry, sorry, couldn’t be helped!) to get our hands on this story.

I can’t wait to hear what you all think!

Frank Taylor GreenResident Acting Company Member

As a company, we embrace failure because it is an incredible and very necessary component of success. Allow me to elaborate.

Playing these three roles and being a Black man brought its own set of challenges, but I’ll focus on Mr. Reed in These Shining Lives.

This role was difficult. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the show wasn’t set in a fictionalized world but one in which these events actually occurred that made it difficult for me.

I am a Black man and therefore my character is a Black man. And while there were extraordinary cases of Black men and women exceeding the boundaries of a system designed to keep them subjugated, it was still 1930. I found myself obsessed with researching Black life in 1930s Chicago in an attempt to understand the character of Mr. Reed. What I discovered later, looking back on the process, was that during this research I was looking for reasons to allow myself to make easier choices for the character. These choices were made under the banner of “well this is how Blacks were treated in America during this period,” “we weren’t allowed to do this or that,” and “Bigger Thomas!”

I thought these banners would bring some comfort in the choices I made and allow for discovery in those choices, but ultimately I found that they far too often allowed me to come in and judge the character’s choices.

I do not necessarily see this process from These Shining Lives a “bad” one, but rather an experiment that brought about lots of personal discovery.

Every time I stand back and evaluate my time with DCRT, I find myself saying the same things: “Man, did I learn a lot.”

“Well THAT was certainly challenging.”

“Who knew I could do that?!”

And herein lies the beautiful nature of our company—there is always room for growth, and once you’ve accepted this, there will always BE growth. Seek, and ye shall find, they say. Well, I sought out some challenges, explored new depths of my abilities as an actor and company member, and of course ran into some speed bumps and a couple of mountains along the way. But looking back at 2014, I see a glorious journey in motion, and it makes me that much more excited for what the future holds.

As the Director of Media and Marketing, I realize that this position includes task and roles that I never pictured myself doing 7 years ago. As an actor who dabbles (just kidding—leaps) into film here and there, I suppose it made sense when Amelia asked me to take on the position. If I act in film, I can create and share film…Right?
WHY NOT?!

It’s been invigorating and empowering to tackle the media criteria. For my job, I get to produce at least four short films (aka trailers) a year, so how awesome is that!? And suddenly I’m learning how to direct, how to location scout/tech scout/prop scout, organize everyone and every thing, and think creatively about PR photos and trailers. I’m learning how to communicate this creative energy with my team—which is usually one other person—the incredible and furiously awesome Rick Galli.

By the way, for 2014, all the PR photos, all the trailers, and all the production photos were shot by this guy:

Yup, I hear you applauding. His work is stellar, and it makes us look great. I’m continuously honored to work with him and see what crazy and fantastic idea he’ll come up with next.

And so speaking of trailers, while it was a tough decision, this was definitely my favorite trailer from 2014 (I think every member of DCRT will fully admit that watching this one makes us all tear up a bit):

And when I say this job is empowering, I mean it. Suddenly, I’m making more videos for the company beyond trailers, so I’m learning how to shoot on my phone or borrow a camera, how to light actors in different environments, how to edit film and build in music and sound, how to photoshop, and so much more!

One of the most challenging parts of my job this year has been marketing. To be perfectly honest, I always thought that word carried a bit of dirt underneath its sheen. When I think of marketing and advertising, I picture men and women smoking cigarettes around a big corporate conference table yelling out ways to take advantage of the American consumer and then going out for cocktails afterwards (um…sometimes my imagination gets the best of me).

Of course, that is not what my job is. In fact, I’m just NOW starting to truly understand the role and importance of marketing, how to speak to others about how much I love this company and why we are crucial to the community, and how DCRT’s drive to seek out challenges has plunged me further into a job that I now love and also carries infinite possibilities. Seek, and ye shall find.

Oh, and yes—along with this crazy year of media and marketing, I also continued my growth as an actor by working on two very wild, VERY different plays, both directed by the incredible John Hardy. The Drowning Girls, in particular, was one of the most absurd shows I’ve ever done. It’s me, two other ladies, a wedding gown, and lots and lots of water. And yet, because of the inherent beauty of DCRT and our mission, it was one of the most lovely experiences I’ve ever had on stage. I’ve never felt more present, more urgent, more needed in a production than this one, and a lot of it had to do with Amelia and Katie. I’ve worked with those two actors numerous times at this point, and spent countless hours working on all aspects of the theatre with them. But the three of us dove into that rehearsal process with no idea how that show would look, and it only encouraged us and drove me to work as hard and as smartly as the other two. I am in awe of their work, was humbled to be able to create this living, breathing (and in this case, very wet) thing called a “play,” and to know that, due to the nature of the production and the nature of water, every single night would be different. A nest of trust had been built between the three of us, so every single night we could all count on each other.

I’m pretty sure this is exactly what “Repertory” means.

Alicia WebbResident Stage Manager

A View from the Booth: A Stage Manager’s year in review.

This has been one of the shortest years in my professional history! From touring with two shows, to pulling out a Show-Stopper for the holiday show, this has been a stellar year!

The first show we took on this year was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We had the privilege to take this show into schools and community centers to help bring theatre to those who may not be able to see it on their own. As a Stage Manager, this was my first touring experience and I learned a lot. From contacting the venues (advancing the show) to seeing what unpredictable things the audiences would say and ask at the talk-back, this show was a real growing process for me.

We then tackled These Shining Lives. This was an intense show that took diligence in the rehearsal process to bring forth the best depiction of these women’s lives as we could. We also toured this show to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. This was an experience I will never forget. These women’s lives were so entwined with the radium, and a deeper level was added when we performed this piece in the lobby of the museum that had a picture of the period table on its floor.

For The Drowning Girls I had asked for a show with more technical elements—Boy, did I get my wish. The addition of live water on stage is something not a lot of professionals can say they have worked on. I spent every night after the show literally siphoning water from the tubs and off the platform. I learned so much about water-sealing a stage for this show, and just how to work with an element that was completely unpredictable.

A Show-Stopper to end the year, All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth, was the way to leave the audiences wanting more. This show was shorter than others, but no less action-packed. In this 45 minute sprint I really learned what it means to “let the show run.” Once we started the Extravaganza sequence, I would start the lights and sound and let them run until the show was over. This is a hard task for the person who meticulously calculates and executes when every light and sound sequence happen. Here, it was one long cue. This made me exercise my faith in myself. I knew when the cues happened—I just had to trust that I did it right!

I am so very excited to start another year with some of the best artists I could have run across. DCRT is fully committed to you as the audience. I can’t wait to continue to add my talents to that extraordinary legacy.

So what do audiences have to look forward to in 2015?

–Animal Farm on TOUR! Coming soon to your local school, organization, and the KiMo Theatre this February!

-Our phenomenal education program teaching Life Skills Through Stage Skills–stay tuned for more information!

“We purposefully picked this season to challenge ourselves, to practice bravery and take some risks. I’m eager to see how our audiences will be served by our work!”

– Amelia Ampuero, Artistic Director

Happy September, DCRT fans! The summer has come to an end… which means an epically awesome Fall is just beginning! Our fifth season is underway – platforms are built, fabric is purchased, and rehearsals begin for The Drowning Girls on Labor Day.

I thought this would be an appropriate time to give you, DCRT super friends, a bit of insight into how we select a season. We get questions every year – “Where did you find that play?” “Why did you choose that?” – and now… I’m going to fill your mind with season-selection-wonder with the help of my fellow actresses in the company, Artistic Director Amelia Ampuero and Director of Media & Marketing Lauren Myers.

Our season begins in August, so we start the selection process in the prior December. It all begins with a question:

What will challenge us as a company the MOST? We know that whatever challenges us most will result in brave, nervy, and exciting theatre experiences for our audiences.

And the answers this year:

A production with more technical elements and what some may label as “spectacle”

Bringing in new artists (actors, directors, designers)

Picking productions that seem difficult/impossible for us to produce

With those challenges in mind, we also have a few parameters:

Our second show of every season is our holiday show. So we are looking for (wait for it…) a holiday show!

Our third show of every season is our Winter Classic. This can mean many things: inspired by literature or a literary figure, adaptation of a literary work, or classical drama.

We pay every adult artist – so we must choose plays that require 7 actors or less.

With those ideas under our belt, the hunt begins!!

We spend several months contacting playwrights we know, contacting playwrights we don’t know and asking for perusal scripts, asking mentors and friends for play recommendations, and we all read a TON of plays. We pass around scripts if we think they are big contenders. Month by month, we narrow it down until we select….

THE FINAL FOUR!! *the crowd goes wild!!*

OUR SEASON OPENER – The Drowning Girls

From Amelia:

“After a long, hot New Mexico summer I like to open our season with something a little chilling, a little creepy or spooky or thrillinglike Gaslight or The Drowning Girls.”

The Drowning Girls was recommended to us by Amelia’s friend, Susan (Thanks Susan!). There is a lot to love about this play – water on stage, dead women in wedding gowns, three actresses playing multiple characters.

In the words of Lauren:

“How will we incorporate water into the show? How can we give these characters full and complex lives while remembering the main circumstance–that they’re all DEAD? Also, I’ve never done a show before with only two other people—my smallest cast to date. There’s nowhere to hide as an actor and that thrills me!”

I’m with Lauren – small cast = nowhere to hide = fantastic, challenging bravery in acting. Given that Lauren and Amelia are two of my favorite actresses on the PLANET, I cannot wait to run into the unknown with them.

photos by Rick Galli

THE HOLIDAY SHOW – All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth

Fellow company member (and my husband) Ezra and I saw the World Premiere of Two Front Teeth at Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. It is written by our dear friend and huge DCRT supporter from afar, Catherine Bush. The play ends with a Christmas Extravaganza – lights, sound, music, dance, baton twirling, juggling – the WHOLE ENCHILADA. It also includes a couple of skating/hockey sequences on stage.

From Lauren:

“For Two Front Teeth, I’m most interested in seeing Frank [Company Member & Director of Two Front Teeth] work in skating and hockey scenes on a black box stage. Because whatever he comes up with, it will certainly verge on crazy and probably slightly delusional (which I LOVE).”

I am jazzed about Two Front Teeth because several of us will be playing seven-year-old children. I don’t know if you hang out with many seven-year-olds, DCRT super friend, but they are exploding with energy and imagination and love of adventure. The challenge and opportunity to bring a seven-year-old to life with nuance and integrity is thrilling.

THE WINTER CLASSIC – Animal Farm

This play struck us like a bolt of lightning. We were at a company meeting, tossing around titles, books we had read in school, and when Animal Farm was mentioned, the entire atmosphere shifted. It became electric with conversation.

As you may know, DCRT super friend, last season we initiated the DCRT Dialogue – a post-show discussion opportunity for audience members to talk about the production immediately following the show. The post-show discussion has become a wonderful barometer for us – what discussion topics arise from a particular script? What will audiences be excited to talk about?

Animal Farm is RIFE with possibility – adaptation of a literary classic, actors playing animals, the comparison between Bolshevik totalitarianism and modern government systems. Victims and victimization. Actors playing animals… did I mention that one already?

On a personal note – I’m directing this one. I know I’m a little biased, but the opportunity to direct a DCRT production (this will be my fourth) is a delightful treat and an artistic wonderland. In my experience, there is nowhere else in the country where actors embrace directors more fully and openly than within the DCRT ranks.

THE SEASON CLOSER – The 39 Steps

This closing slot is our most difficult pick. We like to do a comedy in this slot. But here’s the thing:

Good comedies are hard to find. Small cast comedies are REALLY hard to find.

The 39 Steps has been on our radar for a long time – some of us have seen it at other theatres across the country. Fusion Theatre, our fellow company in residence at The Cell, did a production in 2011.

The 39 Steps took the world by storm in 2005, premiering in England and moving to Broadway in 2008. It is a Monty Python-style treatment of Alfred Hitchcock’s film. And it is a technical explosion. 32 scenes in 25 different locations. Actors playing multiple characters in the same scene. Chase sequences including my favorite, a train sequence that starts inside a train compartment, moves onto the speeding train car, and then inside a tunnel (!) before ending with our main character hanging onto a bridge for dear life. HOW DO WE DO THAT?!? We don’t know yet… but when we do, it’ll be epic and awe-inspiring.

In closing…

As you can see, we choose our season a little differently than you might expect.

From Lauren:

“It is important to us to entertain our audiences with a holiday show and to “lift” literary works into a theatrical plane every year—but what’s MOST important is that we challenge ourselves and our audiences every time we do it, so that, often times, neither party knows what to expect!”

From Amelia:

“I am looking forward to every single show we are doing this season! We did an incredible job of selecting shows that push our boundaries as artists and that will translate into theatrical experiences for our audiences that aren’t merely entertaining but thrilling.”

And from me – thank you. It is because of your energy and enthusiasm, DCRT super friend, from near and far, that we are empowered to choose a rockstar season that will challenge us as humans and artists and, in turn, inspire you to continue choosing live theatre and Duke City Rep.

Until next time,

Katie Becker Colón

P.S. Wanna get in on the fun? Come audition for us – Saturday, October 4th at The Cell Theatre. Details coming very soon!

Well. Here we are. It’s June 2014, the sun is shining bright, and we’re still recovering from the Roller Coaster Adventure that was season number four in Duke City Rep Land. I use “Roller Coaster Adventure” in the best way possible. This season challenged us, pushed us out of our comfort zone, brought in some new blood and new audiences, and left us with the sort of tingling excitement that can only mean one thing: We cannot WAIT for next season!

For me personally, this season brought on two particularly challenging positions: The first as an actor, where I was fortunate enough to take on some of the most difficult work I’ve ever encountered on the stage. The second, as the new Director of Media & Marketing (“new” meaning “combined” from other positions, with some created job positions spattered about), where I started to learn and appreciate the amount of work that goes into a position that’s highly influential in getting the word out about your theatre and then getting folks into the theatre.

Whew! I’d be lying (and laughing, hopefully, at this point), if I said that it was easy. This year was difficult, but as I said before, it was difficult in the best way possible.

So, what does that even mean, especially in Duke City Rep Land? Why are we always harping about “challenges” and “difficulties”?

Let me start off by saying that none of these words are BAD. In DCRT, we try to keep everything positive, because it’s within that kind of framework that the best work happens (and we mean this EVERYWHERE—the workplace, home, and your local coffee shop!) So when things are difficult, we embrace it. We welcome it with open arms and say, “Heck yes! Let’s take this on and see what wonderful things we can create out of it.”

A perfect example, of course, was our opening show, Gaslight. This show was a tough one on many levels. But the idea of doing a Victorian Thriller excited us (and brilliant director Amelia Ampuero) because we wanted to push it beyond the story of a woman going insane by her murderous husband. So in came Charles Murdock Lucas, Scenic Designer Extraordinaire, with a set that defied what some might call your Typical Literal Set. Then there was Amelia who, with a fearless attitude and creative knack for thinking outside The Box, elevated the script beyond the text and into a realm of psychological exploration. Along with all of this, we had to shorten our rehearsal process. Typically, DCRT rehearses 80 hours prior to tech, usually working 20 hours a week for four weeks. Due to the addition of three new company members moving into town, we shortened the rehearsal process to three weeks, and rehearsed a mere 56 hours before jumping into tech. It was, along with the play, quite frightening, but liberating all the same.

I should also take this moment to mention those three new company members: Alicia Webb, along with her husband Coleman, and their First Mate Chubbs (a spritely long-haired dachshund) came out to join us as our Resident Stage Manager, and we feel like we gained a gold mine. Alicia’s sharp sense of humor and knack for keeping us in line and on track makes her one of my favorite people, not to mention favorite stage manager. We also welcomed the newly married (but always fabulous) Colonis—Ezra and Katie. While they had worked with us many times before (i.e. Wooden Snowflakes, Oedipus, and Poe), their move to the 505 made it official! They were not only members of the Resident Acting Company, but Ezra took on the role of Production Manager and Katie became our Director of Education and Development. Their enthusiasm, experiences in Virginia and Chicago, and incredible work ethic have helped push Duke City Rep many miles forward throughout the season! They also happen to be some of my favorite people. Well, basically EVERYONE in Duke City Rep is listed on my Favorite Person List. It’s what gets me going every morning!

So, now that our company was growing and we’d tackled our first show of the season, on came the next challenge—working with KIDS, and working with OUR LARGEST CAST TO DATE on The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! This may sound overwhelming, but boy, was it a joy to work with some of Albuquerque’s Finest Young Actors. Even though the experience of our cast ranged from very little to a lot of stage work, they were all students to each other and all teachers to me! And I know that director Katie Becker Colón imparted a mountain of knowledge and experience to these kids, along with memories of fun and laughter. Watching Katie direct our cast and give them the tools and skill set to continue their path as actors after closing was awe-inspiring. I’d like to think that every single person who works with us leaves the stage a better human being (myself included).

While we’re gaining more and more wonderful patrons to our audiences, for those of you who have been with us for a while, I hope you’ve noticed the changes we’ve made with our ticketing system. It will always be a work-in-progress as we want to make it as easy and accommodating as possible for you to see our shows, but I must acknowledge Box Office Manager Janaiah Tanner for her work “behind the curtain” to support our patrons. She has spent countless hours designing, adjusting, and researching Eventbrite in order to make it accessible for you all, and she is committed to making your theatrical experience as easy-going and engaging as possible. Hooray Janaiah!

After the holidays, the entire Resident Acting Company met up with the wonderful Evening Star Barron and amazing newcomer Josh Heard to begin yet another strange rehearsal process for our Winter Classic, John Hardy’s adaption of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The show was slated to open in March, but due to Hardy’s schedule, we had to rehearse the majority of the show in January, use February to build the set and meet up once a week to revisit the play, and jump into tech on March 1st in order to open 5 days later. Insane? Not quite. Challenging? You betcha. A Roller Coaster Adventure of Shakespearean Awesomeness? OHHHH YEAHHH!!!

I must now give a big **high five** to Lighting Designer and Technical Director Anna Nichols, who has not only taken on both roles for every show since she joined on a few years ago, but whose work I ALWAYS admire. For this show, in particular, I felt as though her lighting design added an entirely new element to the world which we were building using the framework of Shakespeare’s words and Hardy’s direction. As an actor, working under her design was simply magical.

The other exciting and challenging part of this Midsummer process was our first official TOUR! In the middle of the run, we began to meet up in order to “tourify” the show—in other words, shorten it to 70 minutes and maybe alter some of the content to make it middle school-appropriate. We had the extraordinary opportunity to perform for the members of the VSA, middle school students at North Valley Academy, and patrons of the Albuquerque Country Club. Every performance harbored its own challenges and immeasurable rewards, and we left each space feeling as though we had influenced our audience who, in turn, reciprocated those influences. The mutual exchange of creativity and love was bewildering and lovely.

It was during Midsummer that we also launched the “DCRT Dialogue,” where third party members of the community moderated conversations with our audiences after each show. We were excited to ignite this idea for a number of reasons, including giving all of you an opportunity to chat about what you just experienced with each other! We are grateful for every person who came in to help us out as moderators, and we are continuing to move forward with these post-show discussions in order to make it enjoyable and engaging for our patrons.

Then came These Shining Lives. I had the wonderful opportunity to be able to WATCH a DCRT show for the first time in over a year and half. And it was quite the experience. This cast and crew faced a similar challenge to Gaslight—a shortened rehearsal period, with director John Hardy leaving after tech to head back to Virginia for a previously arranged engagement, along with a special performance at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.

Just to give everyone an idea, here’s how the second weekend of our run went with the special performance:

THURSDAY NIGHT: Performance.

After show, tear down set.

FRIDAY MORNING: Meet Bright and Early (hellooooo coffee!) to load up a truck with set.

Drive to Museum.

Unload set.

Re-Build set.

Tech show in space.

Go home and shower (we were a little stinky by this point).

Come back fresh and clean, chat with our fantastic audience over food and drinks.

Performed show.

Had touching and enlightening Q&A with audience after show.

SATURDAY MORNING: Meet Bright and Early again (more coffee) to tear down set.

Load truck with set.

Drive back to The Cell.

Unload set.

Re-Build set.

Go home and shower (stinky again).

Come back for another performance!

It’s here that I must also give a special shout-out to the Nuclear Museum. Not only were they incredibly accommodating, but enthusiastic to share this experience with us. It was pure joy to work with them, and we cannot wait to pursue further special performances in the future!

But I’m not done with this show. Not at all. Because I cannot think of a deeper and more engaging show to end our fourth season than These Shining Lives. As I said before, I not only got to watch and experience this touching, inspiring, and profound production from the audience, but I also got to hear what all of you had to say as you left the theatre. And your remarks, comments, opinions, and overall reactions touched me just as much as the play did.

Why? Because we fulfilled our mission. We served our audience—you all. Your responses to the show were thought-provoking, heart-wrenching, smile-inducing, and I relished each and every conversation with our patrons after every single show. So thank you.

Wow. That was quite the season, wasn’t it?

And now…now what?

Well, as I’m sure you’re aware, while we may rest a little bit after every big project, all of us at DCRT don’t sit still for long. We’re eager with anticipation for the next thing from which we can learn and share something. So here’s what you have to look forward to:

Duke City Rep’s Inaugural Summer Academy

—We’re officially launching our first ever two week education program, led by the Resident Acting Company. In the mornings from 9am-noon, students will learn Life Skills Through Stage Skills through Acting, Improvisation, and Voice and Movement. All classes will take place at North Valley Academy, and if you’d like more information or a registration form, please visit www.dukecityrep.com or visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DCRTacademy.

5th Season Announcement Party!

—Can you believe we’ve already been around for almost 5 years!? It seems like we just opened Trust at The Filling Station yesterday. But stay tuned for details on where, when, and how you can be the FIRST to know what exciting productions are in store for the 2014-2015 season!

Best of the City Voting

—We’ve been voted “Best Theatre” in the city for every season we’ve been in existence. And we’re pretty sure part of that reason is because we’re here to serve YOU, our audiences. So be sure to let Albuquerque the Magazine know! You can vote for us for “Best Theatre” and “Best Actor” HERE!

Some recommendations for “Best Actor” include:

Amelia Ampuero

Ezra Colón

Katie Becker Colón

Frank Taylor Green

Lauren Myers

A moment to acknowledge the people who have helped us along the way, because Duke City Rep would not be what it is without the fabulous support from some fabulous folk:

Rick Galli: He’s the guy that takes all of our PR photos and production photos. Rick makes us look good, and for that, we are eternally grateful. He’s also shot and directed a few of our trailers on YouTube, which puts DCRT out into the electronic world in the coolest way possible!

Scott Milder: He’s another great director of our trailers, not to mention a great supporter, friend, and creative confidant.

Josh Heard: This guy not only did some brave and nervy work in Midsummer, but helped out with build for that show AND These Shining Lives. You rock, Josh!

The Cell Theatre: For giving us a lovely, clean, and creative space in which we can pursue elevated theatrical work!

Our Season Sponsors: Southwest Gynecologic Oncology Associates, Pay Day Inc, Renal Medicine Associates, McDonalds, the Scott Family Foundation, and Sheraton Uptown. Thank you for supporting live theatre in Albuquerque!

And, from Lauren’s File, the entire DCRT Company: Amelia, Frank, Katie, Ezra, Alicia, Anna, Janaiah (and John Hardy too) for being some of the greatest teachers I’ve ever known. I’ve grown immensely as an actor, artist, and person since I started working with all of you.

DID YOU KNOW?!

A few facts you may or may not know about the members of DCRT:

—Duke City Repertory Theatre houses the ONLY Resident Acting Company in all of New Mexico. Rad!

—Artistic Director Amelia Ampuero is freakishly flexible.

—Associate Artistic Director Frank Taylor Green came in runner up for “Best Actor” in Local iQ’s Smart List Poll.

—Two company members (Amelia and Lauren) are Burque natives. But the rest of the company comes from ALL over the nation! Including: Kansas, Missouri, Georgia, Washington DC, and Tennessee!

—Ezra and Katie exchanged their wedding vows in the same city they met—Abingdon, Virginia, which houses the Barter Theatre. This is ALSO where Amelia, Frank, and Anna met them a few years ago, and thus the seeds for Duke City Rep were officially planted!

—Box Office Manager Janaiah Tanner recently became an official Broker for One Stop Realty!

—Katie Becker Colón not only recently became an Area Manager for Arbonne International, but Anna Nichols, Janaiah Tanner, and Evening Star Barron are all consultants as well!

—Every single member of Duke City Rep is in love with their dogs. Except Frank, because he’s in love with his cat. And Katie and Ezra, because Katie’s allergic to canines. And Lauren, but it’s only because she plans on owning one very soon…

With that, folks, I hope you enjoyed Lauren’s first ever (but hopefully not the last) blog post for Duke City Rep. If you have an idea for a post that you’d like one of us to write (or if you’d just like to hear from a particular Company Member in general), feel free to let me know!

We are right in the middle of rehearsals for our last production of the season, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress by Alan Ball. I have been amazed at how much fun we are having in rehearsal! To give an audience the chance to go “behind the curtain” and see the inner workings of relationships between females is an exciting prospect. It also allows for a great deal of silliness. I can’t wait to see how the menfolk react to this production!

Another reason I’m so thrilled to be a part of this production is just the sheer number of women working on it. A cast of five women (obviously), female Stage Manager and Stage Management Intern, female Lighting Designer/Technical Director. DCRT is obviously a female friendly company but there’s something about working with this many women that’s just delightful. This process has, so far, been so exciting to me for many reasons. One, we get to work with some new blood. We’ve got plenty of familiar DCRT faces in the show but getting the chance to work with one actor we’ve only worked with once before and two other actors we’ve never worked with is galvanizing us all in the rehearsal space. The new blood is energizing everyone!

But the main reason why I look forward to going to rehearsal every night is getting to work under the direction of DCRT Associate Artistic Director Frank Green.

Now, the reason why I love working with Frank on this production is that I go in to that space every night and watch a man approach something that terrifies him with complete and utter bravery. I see a man, directing a show about women (a mystery for any person of the male persuasion), surrounded by women, with little directing experience and Mr. Green is running, RUNNING towards the unknown. Watching Frank direct this show is witnessing a master class in bravery. Every night I watch him discover a new and more efficient way to communicate with his actors, a better way to lay his preconceived notions aside. I watch him creating a new language for himself and his cast. He is a brilliant example of an artist experimenting with his art at every opportunity. And what I also see, the thing that makes my heart swell, is that Frank’s bravery and humility in the rehearsal room is inspiring the rest of us to rise to that same level of risk and lack of ego. Frank has set the bar. And it’s now up to the rest of us to meet him on that level. It’s a challenge and a struggle for some of us, I know, because it is never easy to do the scary/hard thing. But I see the fire burning in our eyes. I see the desire to be great.

And I know that this show, which could so easily be written off as a fluff piece, will be so full of courage and wonderful because we had a fearless leader in Frank Green.